No. 4.] CWTTLE COMMISSIONERS. 403 



owners replacing theiu with fresh stock, maiuly from the northern 

 New England States. 



There are about 20,000 head of cattle from without the State 

 (not counting beeves), mainly milch cows, passing through 

 Brighton market each year ; most of them remain in Massachu- 

 setts, quite a number go to Rhode Island and a few are taken to 

 Connecticut. The Cattle Commission, therefore, in the autumn 

 of 1894 issued regulations requiring all persons bringing cattle 

 into Massachusetts to have a permit unless brought to the stock 

 yards at Brighton, Watertown or Somerville, which were desig- 

 nated by the Board as (juarantine stations, and requiring all cattle, 

 except beeves for immediate slaughter and calves under six 

 months old, to be subjected to the tul)erculin test. 



Commencing Nov. 21, 1894, the cattle arriving at the stock 

 yai'ds were held in quarantine and tested by the commission, all 

 reacting animals being killed. Of course, under the law there is 

 no compensation for a tuberculous animal that has not been owned 

 in the State for six months ; but if an animal killed by order of the 

 commission is found free from disease, the State has to pay its 

 full value to the owner. 



Under the method first adopted it was found that quite a num- 

 ber of animals gave an apparent reaction to tuberculin, Avhich 

 when killed showed no lesions of disease, and therefore had to be 

 paid for, making the work quite expensive for the State, This 

 was due to the fact that many cows, as the result of the excite- 

 ment of transportation and strange surroundings, would have a 

 rise of temperature the day after arriving, that could easily be 

 mistaken for the rise of a tuberculin reaction. The cattle trains 

 arrive early Tuesday morning ; the cows are unloaded and given 

 twenty-four hours to rest and bag up, and are placed on the mar- 

 ket Wednesday. Wednesday has been market day at Brighton 

 from time immemorial, I was going to say ; at least, it probably 

 has been ever since there was a market at Brighton. In order to 

 give the cattle time to rest and recover from the effects of trans- 

 portation, the Cattle Commission had market day changed to 

 Thursday, the cattle being tested Tuesday evening and tempera- 

 tures taken Wednesday ; even this was not satisfactory. 



It was then proposed that the cattle should be brought down a 

 week ahead, — that is, cattle intended for sale one week should be 

 brought down the preceding week and held in quarantine six days, 

 and then tested. This plan would have entailed an extra expense 

 that the drovers could not have stood, as it would have upset their 

 plans and cut into their profits to an extent that would have driven 

 them out of business. After testing the cattle at Brighton from 



